Day 24 - A Day at Hendricks

It's not that I haven't spent many days at Hendricks, but this morning I had to take my dad over there to have fluid drained from his plural cavity.  On three different occasions, we were told the time of the appointment was 11:00 a.m. so we were there 15 minutes early to get checked in etc.  Soon they came to get him to take blood and we waited a bit for that to happen and it did.  Then they sent us on to radiology where the main event was to happen.  We sat a few minutes and then a man came out and told us we were very early for our 1:30 appointment--first time we were told of that time--and said we should leave and come back.  I explained in a not too kind way that we were 60 miles from home and would not be leaving and that they needed to get him a bed NOW so he could lie down as he has a broken vertebrae and was hurting a lot sitting in the wheelchair.  After a time, they did put him in a bed in the recovery room and told us we could wait there until 1:30 (two hours from then) and they covered dad up with warm blankets and left us.  I asked for contact info for customer relations because this was such a ridiculous scenario and they got it as well as scheduling dept. info whose fault they said it was.  Then at a little after 12 a nurse came in and said they were taking him back.  I questioned what had changed and this is the first:  they said that a doctor had offered to stay during his lunch and do the procedure so dad wouldn't have to wait--thank you Dr. Anderson and your techs who stayed to help get dad home quicker.  The procedure was done, it went well, they removed 1.8 liters of fluid from him (about 6 pounds) and we headed home.  This small act of kindness for a 90 year old man humanized the hospital experience and gave me hope for the medical profession for a time.